HCM CITY — The General Department of Preventive Medicine has instructed health officials in provinces and cities nationwide to co-operate with education departments to strengthen cleanliness at schools to prevent outbreaks of hand, foot and mouth disease and dengue fever.

At the press meeting held in HCM City on August 11, Dr Trần Đắc Phu, director of the general department, said that students in many provinces and cities nationwide will start the 2017-2018 academic year  on September 5.

Phu required preventive health officials nationwide to guide school managers and teachers to manage waste and water containers away from a school’s campus to prevent from mosquitoes, which transmit dengue fever to humans.

Kindergarten toys and other devices should be washed to avoid transmission of hand, foot and mouth disease among children, he added.

“If one kid gets the disease, it is easy to transmit to others at school,” Phu said.

Nguyễn Trí Dũng, head of HCM City Preventive Health Centre, said that following the General Department of Preventive Medicine’s requirements, the centre has sent a communiqué to people’s committees, health centres and private as well as public schools in districts to implement the preventive measures.

The centre has provided chloramines B and Javel to schools to disinfect classrooms, toilets and kitchens, Dũng said.

Teachers should guide their students to wash hands frequently, he said, adding education on preventive measures against dengue fever and hand, foot and mouth disease should be strengthened for students and their parents in meetings, loudspeakers and posters at schools.

Phu said: “Students are communicators for effective preventive measures.”

According to Dũng, school teachers should bring students who are suspected of being infected with these diseases to hospitals and report them to local health officials to carry out surveillance and preventive measures against their further spread.

Preventive measures against the diseases should continue during the school year, he added.

As of August 10, the city has recorded 12,200 incidences of dengue fever, an increase of 27 per cent compared to the same period of last year, he said.

However, the incidences have not increased over the last seven weeks, he added.

In the whole country, 80,555 incidences have been recorded since the beginning of the year, an increase of 33.5 per cent. Twenty-four people died due to the disease, according to the report of General Department of Preventive Medicine.

In the week between July 28 and August 3, 168 children with hand, foot and mouth disease were hospitalised for treatment in the city, an increase of 11 per cent compared to the previous four weeks. —VNS